I want to install Mint on my laptop but it uses a weird chip (VIA C3 Nehemiah) and it doesn't like any kernel past 2.6.20-16-lowlatency. I've archived that kernel from my old Freespire install as a tar file. How do I swap out the existing kernel in Mint and replace it with the one I have?

I'm not sure you'd want to go that route. If you prefer an older kernel, I'd say your best bet is to go through the versions at a kernel.org FTP mirror, then download and compile the version you want to use.

Well for one I know this kernel works with my laptop and its the newest one that will (so I don't want anything older). Everything after that has a documented kernel bug in how it relates to my laptops processor.

If you prefer an older kernel, I'd say your best bet is to go through the versions at a kernel.org FTP mirror, then download and compile the version you want to use.

Isn't that what I'm trying to do only with the selected kernel? How do I recompile? Do I need to re-build Mint around this processor and make an *
.iso?

jaqian wrote:Well for one I know this kernel works with my laptop and its the newest one that will (so I don't want anything older). Everything after that has a documented kernel bug in how it relates to my laptops processor.

And that's fine. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with sticking with a certain kernel version... But you said that you pulled the kernel out of a Freespire install. I'm not sure that a kernel that was compiled, installed, and optimized for a 6 or 8 month old (not sure exactly?) Freespire install will necessarily play nice with the latest Mint.

You're certainly welcome to try it; it's your computer after all. It might even work.. At the very least, you might want to pull an older, unbranded version and make it yourself so you have something to fall back on. IIRC, Mint 7 Main comes default with 2.6.28-11, so that's outside your parameters. If the kernel you have on hand & want to try out doesn't work right, you'll be left with an unbootable system or an unreachable OS, depending on whether or not Mint is the sole OS on the drive. Depending on the option that causes problems with your processor, you may be able to enable a fix or disable the problem from inside the configuration utility.

jaqian wrote:Isn't that what I'm trying to do only with the selected kernel? How do I recompile? Do I need to re-build Mint around this processor and make an *
.iso?

It's not really as hard or as intimidating as it sounds, but it is every bit as time-consuming as you may have read about. There's even an automated script/app floating around out there that will check your kernel version against the current stable release at kernel.org and download & compile it for you after you've run the configuration utility.

jaqian wrote:Well for one I know this kernel works with my laptop and its the newest one that will (so I don't want anything older). Everything after that has a documented kernel bug in how it relates to my laptops processor.

I'm not sure that a kernel that was compiled, installed, and optimized for a 6 or 8 month old (not sure exactly?) Freespire install will necessarily play nice with the latest Mint.